Dr Vino’s wine blog

First time here? Check out the "site highlights," send in a question, subscribe to the latest posts by RSS, daily email, or free monthly updates by email (right sidebar). Thanks for visiting!

Writing in today’s WSJ, Melanie Grayce West describes the annual “Rioja rumble” known as the Batalla del Vino, or battle of wine: “After mass, the melee on the hillside begins and red wine is fired from buckets, jugs, water guns, crop sprayers and any other vessel possible—the goal is to drench everyone in sight with red wine.” The town of Haro graciously provides the wine. The photo from the event, held on June 29 this year, begs your captioning–sound off in the comments!

Wine consumers often fret over the best glass to serve their reds, whites and rosés. I’m here to tell you: the best glass is the one that the wine comes in, namely the bottle.

Drinking wine from the bottle is a pleasure that no Austrian crystal maker will tell you about. But it is the right olfactory, environmental, and economic choice.

The best crystal wine glasses have a wide balloon that narrows toward the top. That’s also the case for wine bottles where the aromas are conveniently concentrated through the bottle neck.

And because heavy glass has a larger carbon footprint than box wine, drinking directly from the bottle bypasses the need for crystal glasses that may have been sent via airfrieght with excess packaging.

Economically, the costs are clearly lower. And it also provides greater mobility to drink on the go although open container laws do interfere.

Paul Grieco of the NYC hipster wine bar Terroir says that bottles as glasses are all the rage at his bar. “The only hard part is getting people to stop after the equivalent of one glass,” he said. “And you really don’t want to be the last one to order a glass from a given bottle.”

For more details, click here.

Follow the wine action on twitter. Or not. Our interns monitor it for you:

@pete_wells: Never again will I say there’s no good cheap pinot noir. Drinking Latitude 50 from the Rheingau in Germany. Twelve bucks.
@lancearmstrong: Sitting here with @johanbruyneel at his house. Glass of wine, cheese and crackers. Now going to bed. Night, y’all. http://twitpic.com/2e0z4
@TishWine: Getting excited for April Fools 09. At DregsReport.com, we’re cooking with gas. Laughing gas. Homepage going up later this week.
@peterliem: Finally not working, for once. Listening to Sonic Youth and drinking my friend’s French moonshine: a 1995 mirabelle that his dad made.
@TQThomas: @spume I always think acidic whites with Sonic Youth, but maybe that’s only with Goo. Here, Kings of Convenience and Sant’Agata Ruché good.
@ericarnold: having a monster, spicy ramen from the deli down the block. My insides are on fire like in the Family Guy ipecac contest. But in a good way.
@billdaley: Any Lake Michigan types out there know when smelts will be swimming into the Chicago area? Miss smelts, morels, ramps. Miss them badly.
@FrankWine: is mulling marketing a t-shirt to wine bloggers that reads, “I’m Alice Feiring’s Bitch.” This post is meant in good fun, kids.

FrankWine is riffing off this video from Tina Caputo, editor of trade pub Vineyard & Winery Management, entitled Robert Parker’s Bitch. She interviews several winemakers about the influence of–you got it–RP. Check it out (26 minutes):

Robert Parker’s Bitch.

Sales of three-liter box wine are growing at a 32% clip. Compare that to 4% growth in the overall wine market. Sign o’ the times!

Why not make that box all fancy? Site reader Damon writes in to say he has made some hardwood cabinets for box wine: take the plastic bladder out of the box and drop it into an oak model that sits on the counter ($200) or a floor-standing model made from purpleheart and birch ($250). He describes them further: “The interior of the cabinets has a stone finish with a sloped floor, which keeps the bladder flowing until it is empty. I will make these custom for people out of any hardwoods that you want, with any finish wanted.”

Would you, could you in a fancy box? Or same old box wine in a new container?

Related: “Best box wines of 2008”
UPDATE: After a couple of requests via email and with Damon’s approval from Whitefish, MT, his email address is fosterfitness@centurytel.net.

It’s been a long, cold 2009 here in the northeast. All the more reason to have a little winter garden. In a wine bottle.

Last fall, I discovered and was immediately inspired by the work of Paula Hayes, an artist in the East Village. What captivated my attention were her beautiful terrariums, exquisite miniatures of nature (which you can see in excellent photography on her website).

So I did my best to replicate her art using my own medium: wine. My five-year-old son and I went into the woods last fall and collected two kinds of moss. He made his own terrarium in a glass cookie jar; I made mine in a bottle of Domaine Tempier rose 2007, my favorite rose from last summer. Unlike most wine bottles, rose bottles are clear to show off the eye-popping color of the wine. This also makes them better terrariums!

I first added dirt to the bottle. Then I ripped off chunks of moss, compressed them and shoved them through the wine bottle’s neck with a chop stick leftover from a previous takeout. A few pokes and prods later, I had them all lined up. The only problem was a bit of schmutz and condensation on the upper part of the glass; I’ll have to drop by Paula’s studio and ask for tips on terrarium schmutz removal. But now at least all the moss pieces have actually grown together to form a rich green carpet. And there you have it: mossage in a bottle.

One of my friends told me on chat that he’s bringing a bottle of booze to the office tomorrow to pop after the inauguration. He didn’t say what he’s bringing in.

Here’s a pic of Jay-Z at a DC nightclub on Sunday after his belle, Beyonce, performed at the Lincoln Memorial. Hard to top that for sheer size–or quantity! Or price! (find Ace of Spades Champagne) Obviously he didn’t get the memo that Cristalino is the wine for our times…

Are you allowed to bring wine to work? If so, what’s in your bag for tomorrow?
(Photo: FILMAGIC via concreteloop)

Many people in the wine trade are taking a bath because of the economic crisis. But not importer Terry Theise: he’s taking a shower.

Digging through the piles on my desk I unearthed this card from the illustrious importer of boutique wines from Germany, Austria and Champagne. After winning a James Beard award last year, Theise decides to bare mostly all on his year-end card. His caption is: “Theise Wines: so fresh & clean! Swirl. Smell. Taste. Repeat.”

What’s your caption? Be sure to “keep it clean.” Just like Terry.

What do Diana Krall and Sammy Hagar have in common? Not a lot from a musical perspective, that’s for sure. But both the performers have detailed wine requests built into their show contracts.

Krall, the jazz vocalist, presents a long list of acceptable producers of mostly red wine as detailed on thesmokinggun.com. Wines on “the Diana Krall wine list” are mostly robust reds such as Shafer, Paul Hobbs, Ridge, d’Arenberg, Castano, Pesquera, and Allegrini but also includes intriguing choices in Failla and Edmunds St. John. The skinflint show manager would, of course, get her some Ravenswood since that is also on her list. She also requires a can of Nestle’s Good Start baby formula, which may be a chaser of the Ravenswood–or for her then seven-month-old twins, touring with her. (Check out her other demands, including a private yoga room and a dressing room free of bleachy smell!)

The former Van Halen star, Hagar, is less specific in his rider.

Sammy Hagar is a wine connoisseur. Please select good bottles. We are requesting one bottle of red and one bottle of white. Red wine (between $30 and $100):
1st choice: bottle of French or Californian Pinot Noir
2nd choice: Italian Barolo
3rd choice: Merlo [sic] or Cabernet Sauvignon from California
White wines ($18 to $30)
1st choice: Californian or European Pinot Blanc
2nd choice: Californian or European Sauvignon Blanc or Chardonney [sic]

As stage drinks, he also requests 16 cold Mexican beers (Corona or Pacifico), 2 quarts of green Gatorade, and three cans of Dr. Pepper–in stage left cooler only!

For more performers such as Coldplay, Elton John, U2, Foo Fighters, and more, click through to Jamie Goode’s wineanorak, where I first read about these contracts being available on The Smoking Gun. Find out who specifically requested Mouton Cadet!

Which wines would you put in your performance rider?

I like light reds. Pinot noir, gamay, barbera all make food-friendly wines that can be light in style as compared to, say, cabernet sauvingnon or zinfandel, which are fuller bodied (and often higher in alcohol).

Talking about the flavor profile of wines, from light to full bodied is, in my view, a really constructive way to talk about wine. Heck, entire stores such as Best Cellars in Manhattan and wine lists at numerous restaurants arrange wines this way.

So I was surprised to hear a boutique wine distributor tell me the other day that “light” is verboten! Here’s what he said:

“Light is bad. It’s the kiss of death for a wine. I instruct my sales staff to never describe a wine is light–it’s not beer after all! Succulent and fruit forward and food-friendly, yes, but light, no.”

It’s probably just a question of semantics since he does have many light-bodied (my term!) wines in his portfolio, which I don’t think even has one Aussie shiraz or Cali cab. But I was struck by his hostility to the term and, needless to say, I don’t think it is the kiss of death; rather, it’s a strong endorsement in my view! What do you think?